Louisiana First Degree Murder Law

LSA-R.S. 14:30

A. First degree murder is the killing of a human being:

(1) When the offender has specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm and is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of aggravated kidnapping, second degree kidnapping, aggravated escape, aggravated arson, aggravated rape, forcible rape, aggravated burglary, armed robbery, assault by drive-by shooting, first degree robbery, second degree robbery, simple robbery, terrorism, cruelty to juveniles, or second degree cruelty to juveniles.

(2) When the offender has a specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm upon a fireman, peace officer, or civilian employee of the Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory or any other forensic laboratory engaged in the performance of his lawful duties, or when the specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm is directly related to the victim’s status as a fireman, peace officer, or civilian employee.

(3) When the offender has a specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm upon more than one person.

(4) When the offender has specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm and has offered, has been offered, has given, or has received anything of value for the killing.

(5) When the offender has the specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm upon a victim who is under the age of twelve or sixty-five years of age or older.

(6) When the offender has the specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm while engaged in the distribution, exchange, sale, or purchase, or any attempt thereof, of a controlled dangerous substance listed in Schedules I, II, III, IV, or V of the Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law.

(7) When the offender has specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm and is engaged in the activities prohibited by R.S. 14:107.1(C)(1).

(8) When the offender has specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm and there has been issued by a judge or magistrate any lawful order prohibiting contact between the offender and the victim in response to threats of physical violence or harm which was served on the offender and is in effect at the time of the homicide.

(9) When the offender has specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm upon a victim who was a witness to a crime or was a member of the immediate family of a witness to a crime committed on a prior occasion and:

(a) The killing was committed for the purpose of preventing or influencing the victim’s testimony in any criminal action or proceeding whether or not such action or proceeding had been commenced; or

(b) The killing was committed for the purpose of exacting retribution for the victim’s prior testimony.

(10) When the offender has a specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm and the offender has previously acted with a specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm that resulted in the killing of one or more persons.

B. (1) For the purposes of Paragraph (A)(2) of this Section, the term “peace officer” means any peace officer, as defined in R.S. 40:2402, and includes any constable, marshal, deputy marshal, sheriff, deputy sheriff, local or state policeman, commissioned wildlife enforcement agent, federal law enforcement officer, jail or prison guard, parole officer, probation officer, judge, attorney general, assistant attorney general, attorney general’s investigator, district attorney, assistant district attorney, or district attorney’s investigator.

(2) For the purposes of Paragraph (A)(9) of this Section, the term “member of the immediate family” means a husband, wife, father, mother, daughter, son, brother, sister, stepparent, grandparent, stepchild, or grandchild.

(3) For the purposes of Paragraph (A)(9) of this Section, the term “witness” means any person who has testified or is expected to testify for the prosecution, or who, by reason of having relevant information, is subject to call or likely to be called as a witness for the prosecution, whether or not any action or proceeding has yet commenced.

C. Penalty provisions.

(1) If the district attorney seeks a capital verdict, the offender shall be punished by death or life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, in accordance with the determination of the jury. The provisions of C.Cr.P. Art 782 relative to cases in which punishment may be capital shall apply.

(2) If the district attorney does not seek a capital verdict, the offender shall be punished by life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. The provisions of C. Cr.P. Art 782 relative to cases in which punishment is necessarily confinement at hard labor shall apply.

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The above statute is provided as a free service of the Baton Rouge personal injury attorney and criminal defense attorneys at Babcock Partners, LLC. Our Baton Rouge accident attorney and Louisiana criminal defense lawyers provide extremely aggressive representation for individuals in local, state, and federal courts throughout all of Louisiana.

If you, a family member, or friend or loved one has been charged with this crime, or were injured in an automobile accident, please call us locally at (225) 344-0911 or toll-free at 1-800-939-0911 for a free criminal or personal injury consultation. Or if you prefer, you can send us an e-mail by filling out the Free Consultation contact form here. The personal injury and criminal attorneys at Babcock Partners, LLC are standing by to assist you with your legal matter. Call now for a free consultation.

Updated: February 17, 2014

Frequently Asked Questions

The fact that there are attorneys with billboards in our home town that ask “What is your personal injury case worth?” is a good indication that clients are quite curious about this; however, this is one of the most difficult questions to answer, and you should be wary of any attorney who claims to know what your personal injury case is worth when you first talk to him or her. Normally, the value of a personal injury case cannot be accurately determined until “discovery” is conducted, which involves testimony under oath of yourself, witnesses to the incident, and others. The reason this fact-finding must occur is that a personal injury case value is based on two factors: “liability” and “damages.” Liability is the “fault” of the other party, and damages are the total losses that you have incurred, including pain and suffering, lost wages, and medical bills or in the case of a business matter, lost profits and damage to reputation. The stronger the liability in a personal injury case, the more likely settlement will occur at close to full value of the damages. The more difficult it is to prove liability, the more likely settlement will occur at less than full value of damages. But remember, if settlement does not occur and the case goes to trial, your personal injury case is worth whatever the jury decides it is worth.

Yes. We provide free initial consultations for all of our potential clients to discover the facts of their case and determine if our firm is a good fit for the potential client’s needs. We only accept about 5% of the cases we are presented with, so we almost have to do free consultations to determine cases meet our stringent guidelines. If we don’t accept your case, we may forward your case to another law firm.

An advanced deposit is a deposit or advance payment to the firm of some of the fees and/or costs which the firm anticipates it will incur to represent you. The deposit is held in a trust account by the firm pursuant to a written fee agreement.

The firm pays itself from the retainer funds only as it earns the fees or spends the costs on your behalf. The amount of the retainer requested by the firm depends upon the amount of time, costs and resources which the firm anticipates it will spend to represent you. If it is a large assignment, the retainer may cover only a portion of the entire project. If the firm concludes its representation and has not utilized the entire retainer, you will be refunded the difference.

Our firm has collected retainers as small as $500 and as large as $150,000.00. The amount of the retainer is fact specific.

Statistics prove that most personal injury cases get resolved prior to going to trial. Regardless, we prepare every case as if it might ultimately be decided by a jury. We believe in being prepared in the event that an agreement between the parties cannot be reached. By the time a personal injury case is ready for trial, our clients will have spent a great deal of time preparing with us. You will know what to expect if and when your case goes to trial. In some special cases, we will even have a “mock” trial before the real thing.

Most financially damaged businesses or seriously injured people do not want to pay lawyers $300 – $700 per hour, even if they can afford to do so. We believe that you should be able to participate in the legal process on fair footing, even though you cannot or choose not to pay hourly fees. Accordingly, we can agree to work on some type of contingency fee or mixed-fee basis, where rather than charging hourly fees, or for reduced hourly fees the firm will take a fee as a percentage of the client’s recovery; if no recovery is made, the client does not have to pay anything for the legal services rendered by the firm.

Call us at 1 (800) 939-0911 to discuss your needs, or feel free to send an e-mail which concisely describes your needs or problem. Do not include sensitive or confidential information. If you seek our representation in a dispute, you must first identify all of the adverse parties so that we can do a conflicts check to make sure we do not represent any of them.

Please identify the amount of money at issue, whether you have already consulted any other attorneys about it, and if so, who they are, and why you are now contacting us about it. Finally, include your e-mail address, physical address, and all of your phone numbers. We will then contact you to set up an appointment or advise you whether we feel this is a matter or case which we can accept.

The firm may or may not require the payment of a advanced deposit (retainer) before commencing representation of a new client, depending on the complexity of the case, the amount of work involved, and whether we take the case on contingency or a mixed-fee arrangement of partial hourly and partial contingency.

Generally we prefer to charge for the results we achieve not the time we expend on your behalf. (For more on this, see this page.) This is done with a contingency agreement or a mixed-fee agreement.

That said, we know that not all files can be billed this way so we do offer clients the option to pay us hourly. The minimum hourly rate of the most basic work the firm performs is $200.00. On most projects the hourly rate is higher. The rates depend on the attorney and the type of work. We bill our clients monthly and our bills provide a detailed description of the legal services rendered. Clients are also responsible for any costs incurred by the firm in connection with the representation, such as copying charges, expert witness fees, filing fees, outside support expenses and court reporter fees.

We do not have a set contingency fee rate that is applicable in every personal injury case. Partially because it depends on whether or not we are also charging a reduced hourly rate, a flat fee, the complexity of the case, the stage in the litigation where we are hired and numerous other factors. The rate the firm is willing to work for on any given matter depends on all of these factors, plus some others. Generally, though, the firm’s personal injury fees range from 33.33% for the least complex pre-trial matters to 45% for complex cases which are set for trial or will require appellate level work.

In personal injury cases, we typically charge a sliding scale percentage. For instance, the contingent fee may be 33.33% if the personal injury case is settled prior to filing a lawsuit, 40% if a lawsuit is filed, and 45% if an appeal or writ is taken by either side. In criminal cases, a flat fee is determined based upon the severity of the case and the amount of time required by the law firm to handle that case.

Be wary of a law firm that is willing to discount its fees on a personal injury case. You want to make sure your lawyer is adequately compensated. 40% of a big number obtained by a motivated lawyer is more than 25% of a small one obtained by a cut-rate lawyer.

Personal injury litigation is expensive. In order for a personal injury case to be handled properly, there are a host of costs for such things as investigation, copying documents, witness fees, transcript fees, retention of expert witnesses, exhibit preparation, jury fees and countless other necessary preparatory expenses. There is no way to estimate in advance how much these costs will total, because every personal injury case is different and, of course, the earlier in the process that the case is resolved, the less the costs are likely to be. We always endeavor to keep the litigation costs spent on a case in proportion to the anticipated recovery.

On most personal injury cases, we will advance the costs for the client. In the unlikely event that no recovery is made, the client does not have to repay the advanced costs. If a recovery is made, the client is required to repay the costs from his or her share of the recovery.

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Our Firm

At the heart of our work ethic is the fact that at Babcock Partners, we will not rest until we achieve positive outcomes for our clients. Nothing short will do. We pride ourselves on developing innovative solutions to meet each client's individual needs - from contract negotiations to complex, high-profile commercial litigation disputes to the most wrenching personal injury and wrongful death cases.

At the heart of our work ethic is the fact that at Babcock Partners, we will not rest until we achieve positive outcomes for our clients. Nothing short will do.

Accident Lawyer Checklist

If you are about to hire a personal injury lawyer, make sure the injury lawyer meets these requirements, we meet them all: (1) listed in The Best Lawyers in America® 2014, (2) AV Rated with Martindale-Hubbell®, (3) a 10.0 rating with Avvo®, (4) a top 10 Louisiana trial lawyer, (5) has handled multi-million dollar cases, (6) is published in a respected law journal.